


Seek Death And Live

by EternalEclipse



Category: Bleach, Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-05-25 11:50:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14976578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternalEclipse/pseuds/EternalEclipse
Summary: Welcome to the 308th Annual Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor.Of course, if you've been Reaped, you're usually worried more about practicalities than odds because those are the things you can make work for you. At least, that's the perspective Kisuke's decided to take on things.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As promised, new fic! This one will be updated every week until it's done. I hope you enjoy it!

The Reaping was unpleasant as ever. Kisuke had washed himself and his clothes in the river the day before, same as the rest of the district, so they all looked slightly less dusty than they usually did, but if he could have chosen otherwise they would all be out in the fields. It wasn’t like he had anything left to eat, even with the tesserae in his name. The small piece of bread he’d had that morning felt like it had been ages ago.

The Escort was already on stage, twittering over the Reaping Balls even as a good portion of the district had yet to arrive. Kisuke kept himself from scowling at her—the last thing anyone wanted was for the Seireitei to come down on the rest of them even more. Instead, he shaded his eyes with his hands and looked out over the endless fields. The familiar unrelenting yellows were still a more pleasant sight than death.

Kisuke tuned back in when there was a screech of feedback. “Attention, attention!” the gaudily-dressed woman tapped the microphone. “It’s time for the Reaping for the 308th  annual Hunger Games to begin!”

Kisuke stared over her head as she continued. “Now, the time has come for us to select a brave young man, and a brave young woman for the honor of representing District Nine in the upcoming Hunger Games. As usual, ladies first.” She paused for effect as she walked over to the women’s side of the stage, thrusting her hand into the bowl and ruffling through the papers until she pulled out one at random.  “Sumida Kotone,” she read out.

A tall girl emerged from the other section. Kisuke didn’t know her well, but he recognized her—she had a younger brother, Kiyoshi, about Kisuke’s age, and they’d been assigned together on occasion. She’d come to bring him home when they were younger. Her family’s tesserae were all probably in her name. She was also probably dead the moment her name came out of the bowl, and they all knew it.

“Well aren’t you a lovely young lady!” the Escort said. Kotone kept a stony silence.  “And now for the boys,” the Escort continued to ignore the unhappiness in the air. She repeated what she had done for the girls’ side, making a show of choosing a name. Finally she pulled a name. Kisuke felt himself tense as she returned to the microphone. He didn’t have that many entries, especially compared to some of the other orphans, but—“Urahara Kisuke,” there was always the possibility.

* * *

There was no one to come speak with him before he left. The few friends and allies he had made had all already written him off as dead, for sure. He was small even for thirteen, and didn’t have any kind of special skill to trot out – the odds were certainly not in his favor.

The train to the Capitol was more luxurious than anywhere else he had ever been. He refused to dwell on it like he saw Kotone doing—the silk curtains, the real silver and clear glass, those were not for him. He went to look for their District’s Victor-Mentor, but found him drugged out of his mind and clearly useless. If he was going to survive, he was going to have to use his brain and do it on his own, same as always.

The opening ceremonies the next day were little better : Seireitei citizens gawked, he was forced into some ridiculous costume, and he never wanted to hear anyone talk about his  _ ‘sacrifice’  _ or use the phrase “May the odds be ever in your favor” ever again.

The only useful information he’d learned was that he was the second-youngest competitor, only older than the girl from District Ten, Hiyori, who was twelve. He fell asleep that night to the memory of the stylist telling him to  _ smile _ , and play up his ‘cuteness’, as it might save his life in the near future. Unpalatable as it was, it was the only advice he’d been given thus far.

He woke early the next morning, several hours before the first training session was set to begin, and spent the time watching available videos of previous Hunger Games, formulating the basis of strategies to be modified over the next few days, pending the other tributes. He could try to go it alone, but he was one person. Even though he was strong and fast from physical labor, he didn’t really have much experience with forests, and he’d never really needed to know what berries and such were safe to eat. If he was going hungry, they’d rather risk picking up some of the crops that were in worst shape, or had fallen to the ground, because the forests were too much distance away to slip away to often, even if he had the skills to disable the electric fence keeping them in. Still, he had a good memory, so if there was an opportunity, he’d try to learn what he could.

The gamesmasters would probably take him out if he tried messing with the engineering of the Arena, whatever it turned out to be. He remembered seeing a games when he was younger where that exact situation played out—someone had used force fields to kill other players, and had been torn apart by muttations the next day. So playing to his greatest strengths was out—he’d have to play by the rules.

Although…he wasn’t sure if he could kill. He probably couldn’t manage carrying any kind of large weapon with his size, even if he had the luck to get one. His hand-to-hand was nothing to sneeze at, but against a weapon and much older tributes…he was going to have to set traps and try to avoid anyone and be lucky to survive. But then he wouldn’t get sponsors and if things were taking too long, the gamesmasters would, again, take him out.

Or he could try to form alliances, and hope to turn his size into a strength by emphasizing his sneakiness. There were all the inherent risks of other people—an easy knife in his back or his neck at signs of difficulties, betrayals, and all of that. He didn’t think Kotone was going to live long. He was going to do his best--he hadn’t worked so hard to survive as an orphan in a poor district just to die because the Seireitei told him to--but she seemed to have accepted her death as inevitable. It was a shame, because she was likely his best chance at an alliance, but he wouldn’t put his eggs in a sinking basket.

He’d just have to make himself new friends during the training sessions.

By the time they had eaten and found themselves in the training room, Kisuke still hadn’t decided what he was going to do. He stood back and listened to the gamesmaster who was in charge of training, even as the Careers were already straining towards weapons. She warned them to check out the survivorship booths, pointing out that half of the tributes who survived the Cornucopia historically tended to die from natural causes, after all.

Kisuke made his way over to the edibles booth, watching where the other tributes went as he did. Kotone was heading towards the climbing section. Half the others went for some kind of weapons station. Most of them were looking at varieties of knives, but a couple went for more esoteric options, like spears. Only two others joined him, a short girl who identified herself as Chiyoko, a District Twelve tribute, and the strange-looking District Three tribute, who called themself Mayuri.

Chiyoko went to a different section of the booth and proceeded to ignore them both, but Mayuri was leering at Kisuke he looked up. It made him uncomfortable, but he forced himself to consider the prospect of whether he could sway Mayuri into helping him. He decided against pushing it for now, because the other tribute was definitely creepy and he didn’t want to get attention in case things went wrong, so he moved on and decided to check on them later. He could identify a few of the more important things, and he could return to the station later.

He skirted around an examiner and tribute pair sparring with short swords, the District One boy if he placed him right, and found himself at the snares station. It was also nearly empty, with the only other person there being the District Seven boy, who introduced himself as Tessai.

Tessai didn’t say much, but he did push a completed snare towards him when Kisuke found himself having trouble with one of the knots. Kisuke smiled for real for the first time since he’d been chosen, and retied his knots. This was the alliance he wanted to stick.

The second day, he went back to the edibles station to check his memory and learn a few more—he’d focused the first day on things that he would be able to eat, and less on things that were poisonous, but he figured that that would be possibly even more useful once his survival knowhow was assured, or as much as a day or two of learning would be able to help. He spent some more time with Tessai while he was over there as well, which suited him well. The memory booth was also useful to make sure that he was able to speed up identification.

There was some fuss about an hour in, when the District Two girl played a prank on a couple of the more hot-headed kids and challenged them to a fight, but the gamesmasters stepped in. He made a note to watch her, though her long purple hair would be impractical to say the least in most terrains.

After their lunch, he went to his first weapons booth, a knife throwing one. He figured if he were to use any weapon in the Arena it would be best to go for these—he just wouldn’t be able to lug anything bigger around for long. This was more practical.

His first knife hit the target, though it was outside of the circles. He winced: he was out of practice. Benihime, if she had been there to see that, would have made him stand there until his calloused hands bled from the friction of throwing, or even made him dodge on a bad day. In her spirit, Kisuke bit his cheek and picked up the next knife, aiming for the outer ring on the exact top of the target. It wouldn’t do for any of the others to easily pick up that he had any idea what he was doing.

The third day, he rejoined Tessai at the survival booths. They had exhausted the edibles booth and their snares were passable, so they briefly visited the climbing booth. Kisuke had come to the conclusion late the night before it might give them some insight into what terrains they should be preparing for, and had been annoyed with himself for missing that ever since.

He’d not talked much with his only junior, who seemed to be throwing herself into learning the weaponry, but they had sat together that lunch. He didn’t like Hiyori very much, but if they found themselves together early on, she probably wouldn’t try to kill him first. That was good enough for him in these death games—as many allies as possible was his current stratagem. He wasn’t suicidal enough to make the Careers aware of him, and who was to say who of his potential allies would survive the start?

They watched the Careers make their way through the training evaluation first, and then waited a fair bit longer as they wound their way through to the higher districts. Kisuke kept his calm; he already knew what he was going to do.

He needed a score decent enough to bring in a few sponsors, but not so high that he made a target of himself. He wanted to be on the upper bound of the poorer districts’ numbers, but not into Career territory. The best way to do that was to play by the book, but show that he had some skills. That left him hoping for a 7, give or take a point. Someone to watch, but not quite as good as others.

Soon enough, it was Kotone’s turn to walk through the doors, and he began stretching his hands subtly. And then Kotone walked out ten minutes later, not meeting any of their eyes, and--“District Nine: Urahara Kisuke” it was his turn.

Kisuke took a deep breath to steady himself as he walked into the room. He knew that the gamesmasters had probably not paid him much attention, though it might have been noted that he’d been at the survival skills booths more. He walked over to the knife throwing station, retrieved a half dozen throwing knives, and went over to the edibles area. He chose six different plants, pulled off a leaf, and speared it through the knife.

This was a little bit of a risk, as he’d not done this exact exercise before. He went back to the knife-throwing booth, and set himself up about 5 meters away from the board. He checked what leaves were on which knives, and threw the first one to the top of the dartboard. The gamesmasters paid him no mind, so he threw the second and third in quick succession, to the left and right of the middle of the board, outside of the lines.

He then threw the other three into the innermost circle. That got some attention. If he was lucky, they’d pick up on that he’d thrown the safe edibles in the middle and the poison outside of the circles. Either way, he had hopefully achieved what he’d set out to. He bowed respectfully to the glitzy gamesmasters before leaving the room, head held high.

That night at dinner, they watched the television segment on the Games. The Careers did predictably well, as did the creep Mayuri and the District Six girl, who all received scores in the 9-10 range. Kisuke’s own 8 outscored Kotone’s paltry 3. Tessai, he was glad to see, had held his own at a 7, though Hiyori had also managed a 7, probably for her fighting instincts.

There were several more who had scores around Kisuke’s and Tessai’s, as well as another group whose scores looked more like Kotone’s. He wrote the scores down as they went past and memorized them, trying to figure out who was faking and who would make for strong friends and enemies. The District Three tribute was still a question mark, but if Kisuke was lucky he’d either end up an ally or they would never meet.

Kisuke’s mentor was continually unhelpful. He tried to understand that someone who’d been forced to kill like he very well was likely to be might want to escape their problems, but it was difficult when that lack of instruction and wisdom could actually kill him. He did try to glean as much as he could from Kotone’s discussions with their Escort, and the mutterings of their makeup committee.

Even with a full day of preparation, he didn’t feel very prepared for his interview. He knew he would have to account for himself well if he was going to be popular enough for sponsors, and, hopefully, thus generate enough interest to not get killed off by the gamesmasters as easily. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to manage that--crowds were not his forte--but he’d have to.

Kisuke heard music going off in the distance and shifted nervously in his getup in the dressing rooms. “You look fine,” the stylist said. Kisuke hadn’t tried to remember their name, nor those of any of the other Seireitei soft-hands he’d seen. It was pointless and he’d probably never see them again, even if he made it back to District Nine.

“Cute little kid like you, you’re not going to have to work hard to make them like you,” the stylist continued, coming up to brush away the lock of hair that stubbornly insisted on falling between his eyes. “Who’s to say if they’ll decide you’ve got a chance, though.”

“I’ll be fine,” Kisuke said, tasting the words on his lips. He heard how little he believed in it in his voice. But that was pointless—he was going to be fine, or he was going to be dead, so he damn well was going to make them like him. His fists clenched, and, behind him, the stylist smiled.

He forced himself to pay attention to the other districts’ tributes as they spoke about various things. He thought he had a feel for the group’s dynamics, but there was always the possibility for more and new information.

Hajime and Hitomi from District One were pretty standard for their type—he used a sword, she used throwing spears and knives, both were somewhat crazy and absolutely ready to lay down their life for this. Yoruichi, the District Two girl, was definitely as mischievous as she’d said. Mayuri’s creep factor wasn’t just a gimmick either, because their statements about experimentation discomfited the crowd more than anyone with a brain would have intended to. But Kisuke supposed that, even if it closed the margins out, one didn’t need charisma if they were  _ that  _ competent.

Things went about how he’d expected until the District Six girl, who had gotten an unexpected 10 in the training scores, went on. She was someone to pay attention to, he decided. He wondered what her job was, that even at fifteen she was at least as good as those several years her senior in experience.

After her was Tessai, and Kisuke made sure to pay attention to his as well. He was glad to see that his tentative ally was holding his own so well. Tessai was physically strong but unobtrusive, and put those traits and his brain to good use. Even if he wasn’t particularly talkative, the crowd seemed to like him better than several of those who had come before, and that left Kisuke tentatively hopeful.

And then it was his turn to step into the blindingly bright lights and smile for the crowd. He let his hands loosen and prepared to strike a balance between ‘cute youth’ and ‘strong competitor’. He wasn’t going to be able to play at the same kind of level as one of the older tributes might, but he had other assets, annoying as it was to be put on display like this. His only saving grace in this was that Hiyori was after him, rather than before. She would make his act look better, rather than faked.

“Well, hello there!” The Game’s Master of Ceremonies telegraphed their height difference. “Why don’t we sit, and you can tell us all how you’re finding the Seireitei?”

Kisuke folded his hands on his lap to start, and made sure to kick his legs a couple of times as he settled in. “It’s different!” Kisuke went for a wide grin.

“Different?” The Master of Ceremonies played to the audience.  “What in particular?”

This one, Kisuke had prepared for, as most of the tributes from poorer districts had been asked similar ones. “Everything’s colorful!” He forced a grin again, plucking at the yellow piping on his blue suit.

That got a laugh. “I suppose it is!

“So, I suppose you’ve got people back home who miss you? Friends? Family?” Kisuke’s interviewer pressed.

Kisuke let his smile fade and his hands come up to gesticulate. “Well, I’m an orphan, so it’s mostly just me.” The dialogue onstage was interrupted by the audience reacting, and Kisuke used the break to put on a tremulous smile, thanking Benihime for her ‘survival training’ so many years before. “But I still miss people, and I’m going to go back when this is over.”

“That’s the spirit we like to see!” The Master of Ceremonies chortled. “So, you’re good at survival skills, I hear?”

“I’m not going to die because of something silly,” Kisuke promised, pumping a fist into the air like he hadn’t since he was in the single digits. “That’s a promise of a lifetime.” It also revealed nothing about his skills past the fact that he had some, his resolve to survive, and what had already been said, which was priceless. He hoped he never had to play this character ever again, it was exhausting.

“Well, there you have it, District Nine’s Urahara Kisuke!”

And Kisuke was quickly ushered offstage. He chose to walk to the display of those interviews to follow rather than try to track down District Nine’s contingent. He ended up standing next to District Ten’s Victor-Mentor, a guy named Hirako Shinji who had won only a couple of years before. Neither of them said anything as they watched Hiyori walk on screen in a suit, rather than the typical dresses of the female tributes.

He winced as Hiyori missed several opportunities offered by the Master of Ceremonies to make herself look better. Next to him, Shinji was growling under his breath. Somehow, Kisuke didn’t think she or her district was going to get a lot of sponsors. Her male counterpart seemed to be going through the uncoordinated stage of a growth spurt at exactly the wrong time, and while he could have been a strong competitor at another time, seemed to be somewhat out of the race by that alone.

Even though their names were different, Kisuke wondered if Shinji was a relation of Hiyori’s—the man certainly hadn’t seemed to care as much about Kentaro as he had for Hiyori. Either way, it probably wasn’t going to matter. Hiyori wasn’t an easy opponent, but she was the kind he was best able to handle. That was a fight he thought he could win, if it came to it.

He dreamed about various Arenas that night—one that was bitterly cold and he’d had to hide in ice, one set in a field like his home district, one set near the top of a volcano, which set a time limit on the entire event—the possibilities were endless.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And the games begin!

A short train ride and some fussing with uniforms later, Kisuke was in his tube, about to head into the Arena. He breathed deeply and evenly as he was lifted from safety into what would be his own personal hell for the next while.

His first impression was that it was very green. He looked around as the clock counted down. They were in a clearing surrounded by forest. The Cornucopia was on a raised structure with, at an estimate, a dozen bridges leading towards the center. There were a few items on the bridges, but the vast majority of the survival paraphernalia was in the center.

The one thing that Kisuke knew he needed was some way of making water safe for him to drink. That meant a backpack was his best bet—the individual purification devices were small and the research he’d done in the evenings on previous Games suggested that most backpacks had something of the sort. He’d decided to risk the Cornucopia as long as it looked doable, though how…

He could try to get there first and cut the rope bridges on his side, but that would leave him without an exit strategy, with others coming up the other side. Besides, it would take too long. He could try to run, pick up the nearest backpack and some knives if they were nearby, and run away as the Careers took the best things from the middle. That was a tried-and-true stratagem, though it held a certain level of risk--that was a good way to not get everything he needed and if he stayed too long given this year's set-up then he would still be in a great deal of danger. He could try jumping off the railing between bridges, but that was even riskier— the structure was surrounded by sharp rocks that seemed to block the route underneath as well, and he couldn’t afford a major injury at the Cornucopia. There was a reason that the Bloodbath got its name after all.

Fifteen seconds left. Kisuke looked left and right. He had the District Six tributes to one side, and reminded himself to watch out for that girl, Kin—and the District Twelve girl he’d met at the edibles station, Chiyoko, on the other. The Careers weren’t too far away though—District One’s boy was on her other side. Kisuke definitely didn’t want to be fighting him. Tessai was a quarter of the way around, next to Kotone, and Hiyori was next to that District Two girl on the other side.

Five seconds, and Kisuke prepared to kick off. A deep breath, and they were all off. Kisuke’s focus was on the mass of bodies heading towards the Cornucopia. While he was fast, he’d been unlucky—Kin’s district-mate and Chiyoko were both going for the bridge nearest him. While Chiyoko was built for strength, both of the tributes from Six were fast and nimble, and he wasn’t sure he could win that fight at the moment, even if neither of them would usually prefer such direct confrontation.

As soon as the timer went off, he ran for the nearest bridge. He couldn’t afford to linger, but he also couldn’t afford to leave without supplies, and if he was going to survive, he was going to have to play by the gamesmasters’ rules to a point. He was the first on his side to get onto the actual platform and spent a heartbeat cataloguing what was there before picking up a set of throwing knives. Half a dozen others, including Kin and both District One tributes, reached the platform as he’d pushed them up his sleeve.

He went for a dark backpack on the outer edge of the center grouping of items—further in than he’d planned for sure—as the Careers went for the large weapons. The Career girl threw a knife at him, which he blocked by ducking behind a large case that was between them. He picked up a second set of throwing knives that was stashed behind those as well. Someone shouted and Kisuke spared a look, only to see that another tribute had gotten thrown to the ground so hard that it had broken through the wooden platform and revealed many sharp rocks underneath. He was glad that he’d chosen not to risk that as he went half down a newly empty bridge, dodged an arrow, and started running for the nearest forest.

There was another shout, somewhere to his right, and he checked it—only to see Hiyori fall, another arrow and a larger knife sticking out of her. He kept running. He had to get to the forest.

A few hours later, Kisuke settled down, several miles down a tributary. He’d gone around in something of a circle once he found it, but he needed to get further away and keep moving, having access to water was too important to give up. He’d also seen a half dozen cleanings with various seemingly-abandoned structures in. He wondered if that was how they were going to be forced near each other once more people had died.

He hadn’t seen any of the other tributes since a near-miss a half hour before, but he made sure to get to a covered position before taking stock. He’d escaped without much in the way of injuries—his hands were raw from catching himself when he went too quickly on unfamiliarly rough terrain, a few splinters from the Cornucopia he’d already pulled out, and a skinned knee that didn’t look too bad.

He’d also gotten nearly the exact haul he’d wanted. He’d managed twelve decent throwing knives. The backpack held a water bottle and a bottle of iodine tablets, as well as a couple of meals worth of some kind of jerky, a flashlight, a pair of bandages, and a pair of small pouches. He filled the bottle in the tributary and added the iodine, and decided to check the area nearby for berries and other edibles.

The one thing that he was missing was some kind of rope or wire—he didn’t have any chance of making snares or nets to catch small game or fish. Or to trap people, if it came to it. Wire attached to one of his knives might have made for a good tripwire trap.

The sun was low in the sky by the time that Kisuke had filled one of the pouches with various edibles. He didn’t dare risk a fire, especially since he didn’t have anything to make making one easier, so he ate several of the roots raw as he waited to see who had died in the Bloodbath. Nine cannons had fired after the battle, and one more had gone off a couple of hours after it, leaving fourteen tributes.

He wandered out to where the forest was less dense so that he could see better even as the starting strains of the Seireitei anthem rang through the arena. He nearly missed the first pictures, the girl from Three and the boy from Four, as they appeared. Neither of the Fifth District tributes made it, nor had the girl from Seven or either of the tributes from Eight. Ten had lost both of their tributes as well, and Kisuke kept watching as the last he’d ever see of Hiyori was wiped away and replaced by the face of the District Twelve boy.

He didn’t really like her that much, even now, but she hadn’t been suited to this sort of death game, and she’d deserved better. But the Seireitei was the Seireitei, and the outer districts had no way to change the status quo, or there wouldn’t have been so many hundreds of years of Games, the two failed Rebellions aside.

But she was dead, and he had to plan. The Careers from One and Two were all still alive, and them and the Career girl from Four had probably formed the usual Career pack. The creep from Three was still around, and if Kisuke had to, he was probably a better ally than the Careers.  The girl from Six had also survived, and it might be worth tracking her down at some point if he had no other recourse. He didn’t think he was going to go look for Kotone, even if she was still around by the time he found her.

But Tessai was also still around, and Kisuke was going to try to find him, if he could. Tessai was the closest he had to a friend in this place, and at the very least they would probably be able to help each other for a while. And, if he were very lucky, he’d be able to trade something for some wire.

Kisuke found a mossy rock back in the denser undergrowth and fell asleep to the fading light.

* * *

The second and third days, Kisuke collected as much food as he could fit into his pouches. Berries were easier, but they weren’t very filling for the space they took up, so he tried searching for more roots and nuts. He wasn’t full, exactly, but he wasn’t much hungrier than he usually was, and he had a stockpile in case something happened, or the Gamesmasters pulled something and he couldn’t go out for food for a couple of days.

The fourth day, Kisuke stumbled upon an abandoned camp. It wasn’t the Careers by the size of it, though it seemed to be picked over. Whoever it was had set a fire that morning, and wasn’t far away—the ground there was still warm. Kisuke had to make a decision—was he going to go after this person, and possibly try to kill them, or should he move on.

He decided to try to figure out where they had gone. He hoped it wasn’t Kotone or Kin, because killing Kotone wouldn’t do anything good for his chances of sponsors, and he wasn’t entirely sure he could take Kin without further investigating, but there were plenty of others still around.

Luckily for him, whoever it was left clear marks in the undergrowth for him to follow, and he had to guess that it was someone who wasn’t used to or hadn’t thought about covering their tracks. There was a shout ahead, and Kisuke stopped where he was. He couldn’t see anything, but he didn’t want to draw any attention.

After a few minutes, during which Kisuke stayed where he was, there was still no cannon blast, so Kisuke inched towards where the shout had come from. He was nearly there by his best guess when he began hearing sounds of a scuffle. Kisuke took a few more steps, and was able to see into a small clearing. In a snare trap, Kisuke recognized Tessai, and advancing on him was the boy from District Six.

Quickly, Kisuke palmed one of his knives, and picked up a rock with his off-hand. He threw the rock at a tree at the end of the clearing to the left. When the other boy was distracted, Kisuke waited until the boy was about three meters away and threw the first knife. He burst out from his hiding place with a second knife in hand, and made a lethal cut while dealing with the other boy’s clumsy attempt to fight him off with hand-to-hand.

He waited for the cannon to sound before he went to free Tessai, though when he checked Tessai was already cutting himself out of the rope.

“Thank you,” Tessai said, coiling the rope, as Kisuke went to check through the other boy’s things. “Though I had that. I’ve got all my supplies with me. Allies?”

“Sure,” Kisuke smiled slightly. “That should make it easier to put the Careers in their place.”

They took it easy for the rest of the day. They left the Division Six tribute behind before the gamesmasters got antsy about it, and split up his things between them. He’d had a backpack with some dried fruit and crackers, a small first aid kit, and two spools of wire. Kisuke took the wire, and half the kit, and Tessai took the rest, and the heavy curved sword that he’d had on his person. While neither of them were swords-users, Tessai would have an easier time actually using it than Kisuke.

Kisuke had quickly discovered that Tessai had survived the bloodbath by avoiding it entirely. It had been why he’d spent as much time as he had learning what was safe to eat, and he’d planned on risking the water because it was unlikely that the gamesmasters would use it to kill them quickly this early on in the game, as it wouldn’t make for interesting viewing.

He’s gotten the knife he’d had by sticking around and grabbing the one that had killed one of the tributes closest to the treeline while the Careers were distracted with their haul. Kisuke thought that that may have been Hiyori, but he really didn’t want to know for sure.

That had also explained why he’d gotten stuck in the trap—he’d been trying to steal the rope without triggering the trap, and hadn’t quite managed.

They both watched silently that night as the boy they had killed went up in the sky one last time.

“The Gamesmasters are going to start getting serious soon,” Tessai said once the fanfare was over.

“Then we’ll just have to keep surviving it,” Kisuke agreed.

* * *

They circled back to the Cornucopia. This far in, it was certain to be abandoned, but if they were lucky, the platforms might still be there, and Kisuke could make something out of them.

The reason Kisuke hadn’t done so before was that it was a very open layout, and the risks of him getting too stuck on what he was doing without someone watching his back were too high, and even if the platforms were gone it was still a wide open space. It wouldn’t have been the first Games where some alliance took up residence in the Cornucopia as somewhere that wasn’t too difficult to defend.

They had nearly reached the edge of the woods when a cannon sounded. They both froze, listening to see if anything was happening around them. The arena was large enough that it could very well be miles away, but it could just as easily be just around the next tree.

Tessai crouched slightly to speak right into Kisuke’s ear. “If you’ll climb a tree and make sure nothing’s happening in the center, I’ll check the perimeter.”

“Be careful,” Kisuke said, tightening the straps of his backpack. Tessai nodded and slipped away. Kisuke went back a couple of trees, found one that looked to be not too difficult to climb, and got started. He had to jump to a different tree because the first wasn’t tall enough, but it wasn’t too difficult of a jump and, after a single heart-stopping moment, it was over, and he was relatively safe again.

He’d just gotten high enough to see the Cornucopia’s clearing—which was empty of people and platforms both—when he heard Tessai shouting in the distance. Kisuke moved to hide himself better among the leaves—if Tessai were really in trouble, there was nothing he could do for him. A cannon blast finalized what he already knew—Tessai had run into something he hadn’t been good enough to deal with on the fly, and it had killed him. And with the Cornucopia clearing empty, it had all been for naught. Kisuke clenched his fists. He was going to win the games, and he’d kill whoever killed Tessai if he could.

Voices seemed to be approaching below. Kisuke checked his position, but he should be invisible. Most of the Careers were walking right past his tree—the District Two tributes, the boy from One, and the girl from Four. The girl from Two carried Tessai’s backpack. Kisuke was suddenly very glad that he’d taken what he had, and he knew that he was going to kill the Careers somehow.

And, by the time he’d left the tree, he had a decent idea of how he was going to do it.

That night, Tessai’s image showed in the sky, along with Kotone’s. He scowled up at them, and through them at the Gamesmasters and the Careers responsible for putting them there. The non-Careers barely outnumbered the Careers, and that was including the creep from Third who was still hanging on. Kin and Chiyoko he knew at least a bit about, but he didn’t remember much of the two from Eleven, except that they had been close friends before the Games. They were probably working together.

His best bet for destabilizing the Careers was probably the creep, but he’d much rather try to ally with any of the others. He wasn’t really sure how much that guy would care about trying to win the game.

* * *

The next day, the Gamesmasters threw in a twist. Kisuke had only just refilled his water bottle when it began to rain. He’d been lounging under some trees when he realized that the rain was eating through the leaves. He ran for the nearest of the ‘abandoned’ stone structures while keeping under as much tree cover as he could. He got slightly burned by drops that had fallen through, but nothing too bad.

When he reached the structure, he realized that it was in the middle of a clearing he’d have to cross to reach. He considered the rain, pulled his backpack over his head, and ran for it. When he got inside the structure, he was breathing heavily, though he didn’t drink the water that hadn’t fully purified yet. He did pull out the bits of first-aid kit that he’d taken from Tessai, though there didn’t seem to be much in the way of burn salve. He put what little he had on his hands, which had taken the worst beating in that last stretch, and covered them with bandages before deciding to explore the building.

In the end, Kisuke decided that it was probably safe to sleep if he found a corner—the rain didn’t look to be letting up soon, though he supposed that that would be at the will of the gamesmasters, and it wasn’t like anyone would be traveling in the rain. It was probably trying to force several people into close quarters so that there would be a battle. If that was the case, it didn’t seem to have worked this time—not a single cannon had fired. That just meant that they might try it again.

He woke up several hours later, feeling slightly refreshed, and ate some of the dried beef and nuts from his pouch. The rain let up barely a half hour after that by his guess, though with nothing to do but plot scenarios for every possible person he could meet up with, the time passed slowly.

At his next opportunity, Kisuke decided that he was going to go search for some edibles, roots if possible because he wasn’t sure how much to trust berries after they’d been exposed to acid and he only had so much access to purified water. His supplies were running lower than he liked—one of his pouches was fully empty, and it was unlikely that the other would last too much longer. Still, he tried not to go too far from the structure he had claimed—he knew it was safe and empty, and he wouldn’t know about any of the others until he went and checked them.

He followed that pattern for another day, including one more instance of the acid rain, before anything changed. When he woke up and emerged from the structure, he found a small silver container, as one would receive from sponsors. Maybe his mentor wasn’t quite so useless after all. He smiled as he took in the contents. Burn cream, it looked like, to help with the acid burns he’d sustained, and a small pack of jerky that supplemented the small amount of food he’d found to have survived the acid rain.

He was indoors and treating himself as best as he could when the rain started back up. A couple of hours later, during which time Kisuke entertained himself by singing field songs quietly to himself, a cannon blast rang out. Not much time later, the rain let up, and Kisuke felt keenly that the game had begun to speed up.

He ended up wandering further afield the next time, hoping to find an area that had been less affected by the acid storm. After wandering for some hours, he came across an area that seemed to be doing as well as any had before the acid rain, which was significantly better than most were after, and decided to take advantage of it. He had half-filled his empty pouch when some kind of bright blast went off right next to him, and he stumbled into some kind of rope trap. His head was hit against something by an unknown attacker, and everything quickly faded to black.

Kisuke’s final thought in that moment was that he was absolutely not ready to die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update's a day late but it's been a bad couple of days, sorry. The last chapter should be out before i disappear next week though! Enjoy!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And for the thrilling conclusion!

Kisuke was definitely surprised by the fact that he’d woken up. He could see gray stone, so he was probably in one of the stone buildings. His arms and legs were tied, and by the feel of things the knives he’d hidden up his sleeves were gone. Even his shoes were gone. 

He wasn’t sure what day it was, since he was indoors. Under other circumstances being indoors would have been good, especially since the acid rain outside was still a worry, but right then that just meant he couldn’t escape. He tried to wiggle in his bonds to force some extra space for himself, even if he felt like he was just rubbing his skin raw. He wasn’t sure who’d taken him, or why they were keeping him like this as opposed to just killing him, but if he had a choice he wouldn’t be sticking around to find out.

“Oh, good, you’re awake.” It was the creep from District Three, Mayuri. Kisuke started to feel worried—he'd had a bad feeling about this one especially since the interview round, and now he was definitely at his mercy. And they were likely disturbed—who captured other tributes instead of killing them, especially when there was no possible person he could be playing bait for? Kisuke tuned in to the other tribute's ramblings.

“You’re smaller than the girls, but I do wonder if there would be any difference in the effects of the poisons on you,” Mayuri muttered to themself. “Or if I should just go for the electronics. That tall girl from your District screamed so prettily for me when I tried those on her. And it’s not like anyone will come to bother us with this blasted rain.”

He wondered for a moment why this was being allowed to continue—historically, this kind of inhumanity was usually rewarded with a manufactured death, as no one in the Capitol really wanted to see it—but then again, those historical examples tended towards cannibalism if someone was that inept at finding food or had a bad arena, or mutilation of a corpse, rather than torture before death. And he had no allies left alive inside the arena. He’d have to assume he was on his own for this one.

“Not these yet, that would cut short our fun…” Mayuri’s rambling cut through his thoughts. “But this one should do nicely.”

Kisuke managed to turn his head, only to see that Mayuri had fashioned some kind of bowl. He clamped his mouth shut rather than be fed whatever was inside it. Mayuri chuckled upon seeing it, and pushed up his shirt instead. “Either you will swallow this on your own, or I can just cut a hole straight into your stomach. I doubt you will survive long in any case, but I’m sure that that would be significantly more painful.”

Kisuke opened his mouth reluctantly. He would just have to work with that.

* * *

The concoction had turned out to be mostly a hallucinogenic. Kisuke lost some time to that, he wasn’t entirely sure how long, though he was thankful that it hadn’t been lethal. All he knew was that, once he’d re-established enough control over himself try to get away, he’d only had a short while to try sawing the rope that bound him against the rough stone he was laying on before Mayuri had returned and he’d had to play possum again. He’d definitely loosened them a bit, though he’d made sure not to show it.

“Oh, good, you’re awake,” Mayuri said, going back to their workstation. “I’ll even give you a choice this time, to sate my curiosity.” He turned back to Kisuke, holding the bowl again. “Would you like to see what’s behind door number one,” he put the bowl on the stone next to Kisuke, “Or door number two,” he pulled one of Kisuke’s knives out of his pocket.

Kisuke stared up at him. He wasn’t sure if either option held death, but he’d rather draw that out as long as possible to give himself a chance to escape. As he twitched, he felt the rope loosen a bit more, and decided to go for a risk. “Are those my only options? Or do you have something more interesting.”

“Well,” Mayuri fluttered. “I knew I was meeting a fellow scientific mind. I suppose I could bring out some of the electronics I didn’t get to use before, those would be fun to see…” He turned back to the workstation, and started moving things around on it.

Moving quickly, Kisuke broke the rope around his arms, and grabbed the knife from next to him. Mayuri looked over at the commotion he was making, and Kisuke threw the knife straight into his neck.

It was a good throw, by Kisuke’s estimation. A lethal one. He rolled over so that he was on the other side of the table. That left him safe from the last ditch throw Mayuri made after he pulled out another knife that had presumably been on the table, before he fell down. Kisuke checked, but the other seemed to be unconscious. Kisuke counted out a minute, and then a little more, before the cannon fired.

He breathed out sharply in relief before he made his way over to where the knife Mayuri had thrown had landed and cut himself free of the rest of the ropes. He gave himself thirty seconds, eyes closed, before he forced himself to stretch and stand. He needed to go find where Mayuri had put his supplies, and see if the other had anything lying around that might be handy. He had no idea how long it had been, or even who else was still alive, but he did know that he wasn’t going to let this knock him out.

He’d found his shoes and backpack, though a quick check revealed that he was missing his some of the first-aid kit and the remains of his food. He didn’t want to try to take the knife he’d thrown into Mayuri, but he’d found eight blades he thought might have been his, as well as a longer blade and a bow. He didn’t know how to use the bow, but he took the longer blade as well. There was also another pack, probably from a tribute Mayuri had killed, which contained something made of cloth, a small amount of wire, and some long-shriveled berries. He took the wire and the cloth, which turned out to be some kind of coat, and stuffed it into his own pack.

He didn’t dare touch the food supply—who was to say what was actually safe, in this place. He had his iodine at least, which meant he had water, and he would manage to find food elsewhere. Hopefully far from this place.

When he emerged, he had to shade his eyes, unused to the sunlight after so long in the dark. It was either nearly noon or just past, as he didn’t have a compass to check the orientation. He had just decided to move on and try to find the nearest river, when another tribute jumped down in front of him.

“Yo,” the Second District girl said.

Kisuke tensed his legs in preparation to run. “What do you want?”

“No need to be so tense, I’m not looking for a fight, short stuff.” She grinned at him. “I thought that guy from three was here, but that last cannon was for him, right?”

Kisuke nodded, frowning at her. “What’s it to you?”

“Well, the competition’s been getting a bit thin, and I think that the Careers are about to become a problem, so I’d rather take them out first than the other way around.” She shrugged, gesturing with open hands. “Fuckface over there caught Suzume, so I thought I’d ask him to help with the others.”

“Suzume?” Kisuke asked idly as he worked through the implications of her information.

“Girl from District Four. She was good, though not quite as good as the rest. So, are you in, short stuff?”

Kisuke met her eyes. They were fiery with resolve, and there was only one response to that. “Kisuke, not short stuff.”

“Yoruichi. And right, let’s get going then.”

* * *

Kisuke filled his water bottle and both of them ate a small meal out of Yoruichi’s supplies as Yoruichi began to outline her plan.

The Careers had taken most of the useful items from the Cornucopia, as usual. They hadn’t had to search for food, and they had enough iodine to last twice the length of the longest Games. They’d occupied the same structure since the start, and only left it to hunt for players. They’d guessed, as Kisuke had, that the Arena was fairly large, as they hadn’t been met with much success once the numbers were whittled down, though after they’d lost Suzume they stopped going out alone.

He’d learned that it had been Suzume the cannon had rang for the day that Mayuri had picked up Kisuke—he had probably dumped her away from his hideout as to keep the gamesmasters from evicting him. She'd been the bow-user. He’d also learned that the District One girl, Hitomi, had managed to kill Chiyoko the day before. That left just him, Kin, the Careers from One and Two, and the pair from Eleven, who he hadn’t recalled seeing or hearing anything about since they got in. That was a full third of the competitors. The gamesmasters were sure to throw in another twist soon if they didn’t keep things interesting enough, and maybe even if they did.

He supposed there must have been enough fighting and death in recent days for them to have left it at the acid rain. And if their mad scheme to kill the Careers worked, then they might have bought some more time before the gamesmasters brought out something even more nasty.

It rained that night, though it was hard to say what kind. Kisuke took a long sip of his water, shivering underneath the bundle of cloth he’d taken from the pack earlier, which had turned out to be an oversized coat.

The least direct methods of dealing with the Careers were out—their food and water were secured. Kisuke lacked the supplies to setup more than a couple of traps, and if Yoruichi stole much to help with that it would be noticed. He didn’t want to mess with the supplies too much anyway if they could help it—though he’d been able to find some roots, the acid rain certainly didn’t help his food situation.

That left a more direct solution. With Yoruichi’s help, he would avoid the traps they had set, and during her watch they would kill the others as they slept. It wasn’t very sporting, or entertaining for the Seireitei, but Kisuke preferred surviving, and he wouldn’t survive a one-on-one fight with either of the District One tributes in their current state, and he didn’t know enough about Yoruichi’s district-mate to say one way or the other.

He had some time longer to wait—the Seireitei’s anthem was only starting, and Mayuri’s face showed up in the sky in due time. The first watch he saw was a male figure, though Kisuke couldn’t have said whether it was the boy from One or the one from Two just by the silhouette.

He waited what was likely several hours before they were replaced with another person. A light flickered in the pattern they had set earlier, and Kisuke took out his flashlight in response. It had to be Yoruichi, as long as she hadn’t sold him out. He didn’t think she would, as she had more to gain killing the Careers than she did from killing him, but there was no reason not to be cautious. He switched the flashlight to his off-hand and pulled out the long knife.

_For survival_ , he told himself. _The Careers were going to die._ He carefully made his way through the trapped clearing, pulling the coat tight to prevent it from crinkling, as he entered the largest stone structure he’d seen anywhere in the Arena so far.

Yoruichi pointed him towards one room. It held Yoruichi’s male counterpart--she didn’t want to sacrifice sponsors by killing the other tribute from her district, so she was going after the District One tributes. Kisuke just hoped that it went according to plan.

On his end, it was one of his more difficult kills, and simultaneously one of his easiest. The boy never woke up. But, on the other hand, he hadn’t recently done anything that required his death. Mayuri had been trying to hurt him. That other boy had tried to hurt Tessai. This one seemed harmless, for all that he could have been the one to kill his friend, and for all the strength and ability Kisuke knew he had. A quick slice through the neck, and he couldn’t even shout for help.

Unfortunately, given the shouting, Yoruichi had encountered some trouble. Kisuke struggled to find his way around, even with the help of his flashlight. He bumped into a dead end, and nearly clipped his head on some unexpectedly low ceiling before finding a path that was leading him in the right direction. He nearly missed the cannon fire over the sound of his breathing.

When he found the right room, he peeked around the corner rather than present a target of himself. He saw Yoruichi grappling with the guy, and the other girl looking for an opening. He considered trying to throw a weapon at her, but he didn’t think it would work this time—the visibility was poor, she was moving, and also she used thrown weapons. If he got a bad shot in, she’d know he was there, and he'd have just given her a weapon to use against him.

Then things started happening very quickly. Yoruichi bashed the boy’s head against the wall several times, until he was limp—either dead, unconscious, or playing possum. The girl ran for the fray, short knife in hand, but Yoruichi pulled the boy’s body around so that she stabbed into that instead. Sensing an opening, Kisuke ran from the entrance with his sword, prepared to use it against the girl, who, upon seeing him, left her knife and the fight behind and used another exit from the room. Yoruichi dropped the boy as a cannon rang out.

“Are we going after her?” Kisuke asked, skidding to a stop around where the girl had been.

“That leads outside. I say we let her go for now, I don’t know how they’ve trapped this exit,” Yoruichi replied. “And she won’t have many supplies—I’m sure they’ve got something stashed in there, but it’s not much.”

Kisuke scowled, but there wasn’t much he could do about that. He didn’t want to go into an obviously trapped tunnel either. They backpedaled and started towards where Yoruichi said the main supply room was. Kisuke started to get worried as he started to smell smoke coming from the direction they were heading in.

Yoruichi cursed, smelling it too. “She must have gotten to the supplies somehow. Come on, let’s go.”

Kisuke followed Yoruichi as she led them to a nearby hallway, from which she picked up a backpack of her own, and then to an exit. There was smoke clearly rising from another part of the structure, and they decided not to risk it, instead heading for the next nearest stone building. “Just in case it rains again,” Yoruichi said. “We should sleep.”

As much as Kisuke wasn’t sure he could trust Yoruichi to watch his back while he was sleeping instead of stabbing it, he was utterly exhausted. “I’ll stay outside,” he yawned. “I’ve got my coat even if it rains.”

Yoruichi laughed, but that ended in a yawn as well. “Do as you like. Though Hitomi’s still around, so I’ve got no reason to kill you.”

Kisuke still slept outside, waking only when it was fully light in the sky. By the state of his coat, it hadn’t rained.

* * *

The next three days passed without much going on. Starting the second night, Kisuke slept inside the structure with Yoruichi—it rained a fair bit that day, and he didn’t want to test the coat’s integrity too much. Besides, he was starting to like Yoruichi despite his best efforts—she would have to die as well if he was going to survive it. Even if she had a sharp sense of humor and a brash confidence that Kisuke had never felt in his life.

Kisuke spent a fair amount of time foraging for food while Yoruichi tried to track Hitomi, or even any of the others in the arena, because “they’re all enemies, short stuff.” She hadn’t been met with much success, and neither had Kisuke—the acid rains had damaged most of the easily available food sources.

While Kisuke didn’t really want to risk a fire, Yoruichi had no such worries, because “I’m good, short stuff. If I can’t find anyone nearby, it’s because there’s no one.” So she made a small fire with supplies from her own pack, and they stripped trees to cook and eat the inner bark. It didn’t taste particularly good, but any nutrition was better than nothing.

Kisuke had stayed up that next night to watch as the faces of the District One and Two boys went up in the skies, though Yoruichi hadn’t. He added them to his mental tally of the dead—there were only six of them left.

Still, they were feeling the effects of several days without much food around, and surely the Seireitei wasn’t going to let the current state of not much going on (unless the others were up to more interesting things) last much longer.

True to his expectation, the Seireitei wasn’t going to let the current state of things go on much longer. Right The announcement system flared to life: “ _Attention, attention tributes_ .” Kisuke and Yoruichi immediately sprang to their feet, ready for anything. “ _This evening, there will be a feast! As always, the feast is going to be held where all of you began this adventure. I’m sure you’ll all be there. And may the odds be ever in your favor_!”

“Let’s get going,” Yoruichi said, grinning. “If we go now, we can set traps for everyone else.” Kisuke bit into his piece of breakfast bark. He was going to make this work for him as well. This was just another step he had to take before he could get out of the Arena.

They had two hours of walking to do before they got to the Cornucopia. They stopped briefly to fill their water bottles about halfway in, but mostly kept to their own thoughts for the duration.

Kisuke, if he’d been on his own, would probably have waited for the strongest players to be fighting before running and snagging whatever food he could off of the nearest end, whatever he could carry, and run back into the forest. He could possibly pick someone off from a distance, but there were four people still around in addition to himself and Yoruichi—he certainly couldn’t handle them all.

But Yoruichi was right—the two of them together could put together traps for the others. And Hitomi was likely to be targeting Yoruichi if possible, or even Kisuke, for turning on her and killing her allies. He didn’t know much about the pair from Eleven, but he’d guessed that they were sticking together. Kin, he didn’t know anything about either, since he hadn’t seen her since the start.

Hitomi was likely going to go to kill people. The others might, or might not. He doubted any of the others were any better off with regard to food than him and Yoruichi. He wasn’t sure quite how that would play out, except that with so many tributes in one place, people were sure to die. He just had to make sure that he wasn’t one of them.

Kisuke forced himself to climb a tree to get a good look at the clearing. It looked much the same as it had the last time he had been there, showing more signs of deterioration from the acid rain. He wasn’t sure how well the bridges were holding up, or the platform itself, now that he thought of it. A third of the bridges had snapped, and they would have to get closer to see how the rest were doing. That was an idea…if they could control how the other tributes could get onto the platform, then they could trap it. They didn’t have the kind of supplies to trap the whole setup—that possibility had gone up in flames with the Careers’ supply room.

At the very least the place seemed empty. They’d have to be out of the way by the time the Seireitei brought out food, but that likely wasn’t going to be for hours yet. Time to begin.

He climbed back down the tree and explained to Yoruichi what he had seen. Kisuke decided to go with her to test the structure before hiding back in his tree—if everything were to end at the Feast, he didn’t want to be at a disadvantage by not knowing how the platform was.

In the end, they cut four more bridges, leaving four. The two that they decided were sturdiest, and two that they thought would collapse under any weight. Kisuke memorized which was which as they prepared the area. As soon as they could, they retreated into the trees.

The plan was that both of them would climb trees at different angles to the remaining four bridges, which were all on one half of the Cornucopia, and hopefully see the other tributes as they arrived. Kisuke caught a rustling he didn’t think was wind somewhere between the two of them a couple of hours later, just a few minutes before the Seireitei drone dropped off what looked to be a good-sized feast. He presumed that whoever it was had settled in to wait as well, and made sure not to give away his position.

A good fifteen minutes passed before anyone moved. And then the pair of tributes from Eleven raced out of the forest. Hitomi emerged about ten meters behind them and threw a spear at the girl, but she dodged. Luckily for them, they chose one of the intact bridges to cross, and Yoruichi emerged to pick a fight with Hitomi.

At that point, Kin emerged from the forest right under him. Kisuke quickly slid down his tree as she ran towards the platform, drawing one of his knives as he did. It went wide, but Kin turned around to look at him. It cost her precious seconds to get back on track. Seeing that she’d lined up for one of the bridges that was ready to fall apart, Kisuke drew his sword, and when the bridge fell under her weight, Kisuke was there to slice at her with a killing blow. Luckily for him, she’d hit her head hard as she went down, and wasn’t in any position to stop him

There was a cannon blast. Kisuke looked over to where Yoruichi and Hitomi were fighting, and saw that Yoruichi was still fighting. She was injured, judging by the blood, but she had a better med kit than Kisuke had, and the Games weren’t likely to last long enough for her to get very badly infected.

Then he noticed the fire. In the midst of the fighting, the two from Eleven had filled a backpack with what they could, set the platform on fire, and dashed back into the forest. Kisuke and Yoruichi would have to go after them later, though it was good to have definite confirmation that they were working together. They’d kill two birds with one stone when it came to it.

Right then, Kisuke was more concerned with getting as much food as he could before the platform went entirely up in flames. He grabbed whatever he could hold, which ended up being two loaves of bread. He escaped just before the fire destroyed the last good bridge.

Just after he got clear, another cannon rang. Kisuke checked, and supposed he was glad that it was Yoruichi that was still standing.

* * *

They spent the night and the next day near the Cornucopia, after the fire went out. Kisuke guessed that the pair from Eleven had expected the fighting to go on longer, or for the platform to have gone up more quickly. He knew better than to gorge himself, but the bread filled him more than anything he'd eaten since the Games began and he was glad to have something to eat. This close to the end of the Games, they didn’t need to ration it either. It was better to make sure they were as strong as possible for the last fight.

Kisuke idly wondered what the other pair would do if they managed to kill Kisuke and Yoruichi in the end, if they were that close, but pushed aside that avenue of thought. He knew better than to think it would happen. He’d been one of the most lethal players in the Games, after all, with four kills to his name, and at least one more to come. He liked Yoruichi, but they didn’t trust each other. They both had their eyes on the prize.

It took them a little time to find their trail, as they were fairly good at covering up the traces of their passing, but the others had to be after them as well, since they were the only others left. The Games were nearly over, after all. Something would have to give.

Kisuke noticed a snare trap he recognized as one that the snares booth in the training room had taught, and drew a short knife right before he purposefully tripped it. Both of the tributes from Eleven rushed at them as soon as he did. They hadn’t expected him to immediately cut himself out of it, using his superior knowledge of snares. Two-on-one, they hadn’t fared very good odds against a Career like Yoruichi, but fair odds against Kisuke as well meant that the fight didn’t last very long.

They had probably survived by hiding, surviving by luck and skill and hoping that whoever lasted until the end would be exhausted and easy to beat, especially with that fire trick. It was how the last Hunger Games had been won after all, he remembered seeing that one playing around town as they always were.

If things had been different, it might even have worked. But the person who had tried it the last time had been better at fighting to Kisuke’s eye, and their opponent significantly worse off than Kisuke and Yoruichi were, even if they hadn’t managed to get food.

Two cannon blasts rang out, and Kisuke’s mind went whirling. It was just him and Yoruichi left, and—he parried the first blow of Yoruichi’s short spear with his sword. At the force they were using, his sharpened steel splintered the wooden shaft of the spear.

Kisuke pressed his advantage as Yoruichi drew back, going for a shorter blade. He dealt her a long cut on her arm from where she used it to protect her neck, and then she was parrying with a short blade.

“That all you got, short stuff?” She grinned at him.

Kisuke slipped slightly on the bloody moss, but managed to parry her next blow anyway. His knee was twinging where he landed on it, but it was probably not worse than skinned, and he couldn’t spare any attention for it.

Yoruichi tried for a stab, which Kisuke dodged, trying for another slash before she could bring her knife back up to parry it, only to find that she’d drawn another small knife with her off-hand, which left Kisuke dancing backwards from another stab.

This fight was absolutely not to his advantage. A straight fight with a Career against whom he didn’t have the advantage of surprise, traps, or any such tricks. But then, he’d had most of a week to try to come up with ways to win this highly probable fight.

After a few more parries, Kisuke let himself be knocked back by the force of one of Yoruichi's blows. With that space, he sheathed his sword as he took out one of his throwing knives. He threw one, which only barely missed because Yoruichi dodged. He prepared to throw a second and Yoruichi braced slightly, readying herself to dodge, when Kisuke turned and ran for it instead. He dodged one of her own thrown weapons and the trees as he set up the plan he'd come up with. She was fast enough that he wouldn’t get very far, but…he dropped his coat, and watched her slip on the suddenly slick surface, unable to dodge between the trees without letting him get further away. Kisuke pivoted and threw the knife in his hand into her back, before unsheathing his sword again and slashing with it.

This time, when she parried with her arm, he nearly took it off. She was still crouched down, and was slashing at his legs when Kisuke made the lethal cut. Kisuke jumped back, stumbled, and fell to his knees as the final cannon rang out. He stared at the fallen figure in front of him as he settled his sword onto his knees. It was over. He had won.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus ends Kisuke's Hunger Games! There's a bit more in this universe to come, I've got about 6k of it written so far, but I'd like to get it done a bit more before I start posting. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this!


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